Views: 3582 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-01-16 Origin: Site
What's new in the beer industry? More recently, giant Suntory said it would focus on non-alcoholic beverages by 2025 and set up a "non-alcoholic business unit". This has also brought "alcohol-free beer" to the fore. As an important innovation category, what giants are currently laying out alcohol-free beer? How is the progress of domestic beer?
Recently, Suntory Holdings announced at the 2025 liquor and beer Business policy presentation that it will establish an "alcohol-free business division" in 2025. President Nobuhiro Torii said it will focus on non-alcoholic beverages in 2025.
It is understood that the non-alcoholic beverage business is positioned as a new challenge. Currently, the non-alcoholic business is handled by the beer division, spirits division and wine division, but the company will set up a new non-alcoholic division in January 2025 to integrate the previously fragmented marketing functions.
On the product side, Suntory has also proposed a full-year alcohol-free beverage plan. In addition to updating its existing products, it said it will launch products such as a new product "alcohol-free citric acid drink" with a functional logo on January 7, 2025. The company will hold a press conference in February 2025 to announce details.
It can be seen that facing the market demand of the new generation, the giant Suntory is constantly adjusting its business structure. In the view of the industry, Suntory set up the alcohol-free division, based on the prospect of this segment of the track. At present, alcohol-free beer is becoming a new category of global drinks, and the global market size is expected to continue to grow.
The no - and low-alcohol beer market is already worth more than $13 billion in 2023, according to the latest data from the International Wine & Spirits research body IWSR, and is expected to grow its share of the overall alcohol market to nearly 4% by 2027.
Alcohol-free beer, that is, alcohol-free beer, but does not equal "0 alcohol". According to the T/CBJ3108-2021 alcohol-free Beer standard issued by China Liquor Association, beer with alcohol content less than or equal to 0.5%vol is defined as alcohol-free beer.
To the extent that alcohol-free beer can reduce alcohol intake, it is undoubtedly a good choice for those who want to limit their alcohol intake or can't drink alcohol.
At present, consumers will choose alcoholic drinks more rationally, tend to choose products with better quality and better experience, rather than simply pursuing alcohol content or quantity.
In order to meet the current trend of healthy drinking and driving needs, beer beverage head enterprises have cultivated alcohol-free beer as a placeholder product. In addition to Suntory, Anheineken InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg, Asahi, Kirin and others are actively pushing forward. Two brands, Budweiser and Heineken, account for 60% of the global alcohol-free beer market.
Asahi Beer, for example, said in 2024 that it would push into zero-alcohol and low-alcohol beverage products. Industry data also show that alcohol-free beer is becoming more popular among consumers in the pursuit of health.
Ab InBev plans to shift a fifth of its beer sales to no-alcohol and low-alcohol products (3.5 per cent or less by alcohol) by 2025. Budweiser Asia Pacific will launch a new Corona Alcohol-free beer and Budweiser Alcohol-free beer in China in 2024. "Budweiser wants to diversify the number of occasions consumers drink beer. Alcohol-free beer is also available on certain occasions or based on personal preference." Budweiser Asia Pacific CEO and co-chairman Yang Ke has said so.
Heineken, for its part, continued to consolidate its leading position as the world's No. 1 alcohol-free beer through the integration of its low-alcohol and alcohol-free business. Heineken has grown its alcohol-free beer offerings in the United States, Mexico, Spain and other markets in recent years.
In terms of Chinese beer, Yanjing Beer, Qingdao beer, Snow beer and so on also have a layout in alcohol-free beer. Yanjing Beer is continuously upgraded to launch alcohol-free beer with zero fat, low sugar and low fat, and retains the pure flavor of German white beer.
With the maturity of the beer market, the trend of diversified and personalized development of beer is becoming more and more obvious. As an emerging category, alcohol-free beer also caters to the scene demand of young consumer groups for "social + health". Especially in the current fast-paced consumption, the window period of alcohol-free beer market has come.
Previously, alcohol industry analyst CAI Xuefei pointed out that alcoholless beer may lead to light flavor due to less alcohol, which is not in line with the public's pursuit of light flavor, and is not in line with the current heavy flavor style represented by craft brewing and stout, positioning is slightly embarrassing.
With the rise of younger consumers, consumer trends are changing. Recently, a consumption survey shows that "good taste" is the most important factor for consumers to pay attention to when they buy alcohol products, with a proportion of up to 50.5%; The second most popular item on the list is "health care," which is in line with the health claims of alcohol-free beer.
Therefore, if alcohol-free beer can also gain advantages in taste, its core competitiveness will be greatly improved. But this again involves a paradox. The above analysts pointed out that the biggest difficulty in the development of alcohol-free beer is the innovation of flavor, and innovation involves the upgrading of the whole concept of alcohol-free beer, which is a system engineering.
From the trend, alcohol-free beer will become an important innovation category, will usher in a better expansion period